


Things to Look Forward To

by rhodrymavelyne



Category: Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-29
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-10 18:07:06
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28411395
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rhodrymavelyne/pseuds/rhodrymavelyne
Summary: Hannibal considers how much he’s come to care for Will, yet how much he’s enjoying corrupting him.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Kudos: 7





	Things to Look Forward To

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place during the late first season or early second season. I don’t own Hannibal but for over a year it has owned me.

I’ve come to realize a truth about Will Graham, coming into focus like an approaching mountain. His conviction, his desire to sacrifice himself was greater than his desire to live. 

All those people who’ve begged, screamed, and pleading with me, clinging to life, all those ugly, rude creatures understood one important truth; life was precious. Their lives were precious to them. I've finally met a young man whom seemed the embodiment of everything precious, mysterious, and stimulating about life itself and he doesn’t recognize his own value. He regards himself as unworthy of life, a grotesque instrument to extend the lives of others. 

How maddening to care for such a martyr, even if I am still bemused and a bit taken aback by own newborn emotions. They're fresh enough to fascinate me as well as frustrate me. I wasn't about to let sentiment cloud my thinking or my purpose. Oddly enough it was in tandem with, yet opposed to Jack’s Crawford’s; to be there for Will Graham. To save him when he was slipping down the slope of his own doom. 

There was only one way to save Will Graham.

I had to despoil him, corrupt him so he’d let go of his conviction that his life existed for the Bureau to dispose of for others. This was the only way to save Will’s life. It was the only way he’d have a life. 

This was where I was at odds with Jack. Jack was more than ready to manipulate Will into sacrificing himself to save his precious human victims from the monsters whom hunted them. As one of the monsters, I preferred not to have my preserve disrupted, yes, but this didn’t mean that Will’s life, Will’s happiness was more precious to me than those he sacrificed himself for. 

It was for his own good. No matter what degradation I dragged Will through, it was for his own good. 

I hoped Will would understand one day. A reckoning might come sooner than anticipated if Will understood as clearly as he did so many other truths about me, even with scales over his eyes, preventing him from truly seeing me. 

I was also enjoying Will’s degradation. I wanted to protect him, but he was so beautiful when he burned. I never could quite guess how he’d react and he had a way of triggering my curiosity and hungers I hadn’t even realized were unsatisfied. 

Good intentions wrapped within an intelligent psychopath, is this how Will would label me, explain me? My own reactions to Will were a constant discovery to myself. How quickly would he catch up with what I learned? 

We would both find out, given time, and the answer might surprise both of us. Just one more thing to look forward to.


End file.
